Founded in 1961, Ivan Smith Furniture which employs over 700 people is a third-generation, family-owned business headquartered in Shreveport, Louisiana. It is a furniture store company, which credits its success to a continued adherence to traditional values of integrity, quality and customer service, is embracing the very latest video surveillance technology to protect its assets and obtain valuable business intelligence on the buying patterns of its customers.

Having suffered the theft of air conditioning units at a number of its stores, Ivan Smith Furniture sought the advice of Guardian Alarm Systems as how best to detect and deter further criminal activity. “It was extremely expensive to replace the stolen air conditioning units, but equally important our customers were struggling to cope with the very hot conditions in the stores and as a result, sales were affected.” said Dawn Harding, Head of Security for Ivan Smith Furniture.

Guardian Alarm Systems recommended and have subsequently installed video surveillance cameras equipped with VCA Technology Video Analytics software. This instantly analyses the images captured by the cameras and generates an alarm which is transmitted to Guardian Alarm Systems’ central monitoring centre if anyone gets too close to one of the air conditioning units.

“Until Guardian Alarm Systems brought it to our attention we had not previously realised how Video Analytics could be of such great benefit to our business,” said Dawn Harding. “We were very impressed with the detection capabilities of the software and as a result we have also installed the cameras in our loading zones to detect and deter any theft whilst deliveries are taking place,” said Dawn Harding. “However, we also have the bonus of using the people counting feature of the software to produce accurate daily reports on how many people enter our stores and at what times. We invest heavily in marketing and it is extremely valuable to have a method of measuring the response we get from a particular advertising campaign.”

VCA Technology Video Analytics operates effectively with both indoor and outdoor cameras. Multiple overlapping detection lines and zones can be designated to ensure that only specific activity is recorded. Direction of movement is defined so that the software only triggers when individuals or objects move in a particular direction across a zone, or when they move into a zone but not when they leave it. A rapid 'learning time' of just two seconds means that images are detected and classified almost instantaneously.

The software can be used for a wide range of applications including intrusion detection, vehicle monitoring, abandoned object detection and loitering detection. It can even detect camera tampering and failure. The software can also be used to ensure Health and Safety compliance and is capable of indentifying potentially dangerous situations before they occur. Operators can be alerted, for example, when fire escapes are obstructed or when items are left in walkways.